I enjoy job simulator type games and really like the aspect of decorating and taking something and improving it. I’m a sucker for visual progress and I’m comfortable with physical labor in real life, so why can I only do it in games and structured activities?
American Truck simulator’s world is a 1:20 scale replica of the real world. Any drive will take about 20 times longer to complete in reality than in game. Simulator games remove most of the drugery.
It feels great to deliver cargo after a 10 minute drive. Delivering cargo after 3 hours is the start of a shift.
It would feel way better to deliver cargo after a 3 hour shift in real life if the pay and quality of life was good as a truck driver… but we live in a fundamentally broken economy that stomps its foot on the working class at every opportunity. The whole “work is hard and repetitive” thing gets nullified for the vast majority of people for most work if they are able to purchase things and have a roof over their head in what feels like a fair exchange for said work.
If you made a great living as a truck driver you would likely find yourself hard pressed to care about delivering cargo in a video game simulation.
The vast majority of players of American Truck Simulator are not professional truck drivers. There is very little appeal to playing a game that simulates your job, so most truck drivers chose other forms of entertainment than truck simulator games. This is not because of the payscale.
It takes about 8 hours to drive 500 miles. Spending 8 hours maintaining lane position is not very engaging. No amount of money will make 8 hours of lanekeeping exciting or engaging.